Singapore's Promo Ad is Justifiably Called One of the Worst

This is being described as the "most embarrassing tourism ad ever," and also as "so bad it will go viral," and also as "cringe-worthy," and also as a bunch of other similar things. We've watched it - once, and only once - and those are all fair descriptions. It might literally be the worst bit of travel advertising we've ever seen. It's so bad that it goes around to being good, but then it comes back around to being bad, and then it gets stuck at bad. It's painful to watch.

The source of this travesty is the Singapore tourism board, and the backlash they faced was very immediately and very public. In what might be described as an understated public climb-down, the board admitted that the video "was not resonating well with audiences" and that "some aspects of it could have been done better." So of course they took it down, and of course you can find one of its many online copies embedded below.

The Internet, by the by, is still in the midst of hate-watching the hell out of this thing. You can check out some of the early Twitter reactions at the bottom of this article, and you might also check out the comments underneath a Facebook post with the video here.

There's no description we can give that will do the video justice, but just to set things up for you: this is a three-minute clip of a young Filipino couple seeing the various sights that Singapore has to offer. They go from place to place, and at the end she gives him a gift box. He says some words, she says some words, and the effect is a kind of magic that causes your brain to shut off from the pain.

As you watch, keep in mind that a group of human beings sat around in a room, watched this clip, and said to each other "yes - this is the one we're going with."